Disney Nets Oscar Nominations

Oscar Nominees were announced this morning by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. I count 31 nominations for the Walt Disney Company and its divisions. Not too shabby. Oddly enough there are multiple categories where Disney is competing against itself, which either makes it easy to earn some gold, or more difficult, since multiple nominations tend to balance each other out when it comes to voting.

But without further ado, here are Disney’s nominations for this year’s Academy Awards.

Performance by an actor in a leading roleDaniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" – Paramount Vantage and Miramax

Performance by an actor in a supporting roleJavier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men” – Miramax

Performance by an actress in a supporting roleAmy Ryan in “Gone Baby Gone” – Miramax

Best animated feature film of the year“Ratatouille” – Walt Disney (Brad Bird)

Achievement in cinematography“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Janusz Kaminski“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roger Deakins“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Robert Elswit

Achievement in directing“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Julian Schnabel“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Joel Coen and Ethan Coen"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Paul Thomas Anderson

Achievement in film editing“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Juliette Welfling“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Dylan Tichenor

Achievement in makeup“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Walt Disney) Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)“Happy Working Song” from “Enchanted” (Walt Disney) Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Stephen Schwartz“So Close” from “Enchanted” (Walt Disney) Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Stephen Schwartz“That’s How You Know” from “Enchanted” (Walt Disney) Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

Best motion picture of the year“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

Achievement in sound editing“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Skip Lievsay“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney) Randy Thom and Michael Silvers“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Matthew Wood

Achievement in visual effects“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Walt Disney) John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier

Adapted screenplay“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Screenplay by Ronald Harwood“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson

Ratatouille" is up against two other films for the Best animated feature film of the year. "Persepolis" is an amazing controversial film from France and "Surf’s Up" is a pop-culture junket from Sony Pictures. Disney should win this one, but with "Persepolis" the voting will probably be close.

With three of the five numbers for Best Original Song going to Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz for their work on "Enchanted" there is a real danger of vote cannibalization. So watch out for a sneak winner from one of the other two nominees here.

As usual Disney’s Miramax division is doing its job of racking up the Oscar nominations. I’m surprised that there were only two nods to "Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End", perhaps it will be more recognized in the technical achievement awards. It would be nice to see a film as well crafted as "Ratatouille" be nominated for Best Picture like "Beauty & The Beast" was.

It seems that anyone who searches the internet for insider Disney info stumbles across Jim Hill. He has a long and dicey history with Disney (which I’ll leave out in the interest of staying focused.) He’s a frequent podcast guest because much like RATATOUILLE’S Anton Ego, his criticism is often fun to read.

But while he claims to be a fan of the mouse, his articles often paint a different picture. (This is the guy who wrote article after article about what an embarrassing failure RATATOUILLE was before finally admitting to its tremendous success.)

What has me hopping mad now is a recent post to his site (Jim Hill : Oscar Watch ’08: Miramax maxes out while the Mouse gets skunked) about the Oscar nominations. He writes about “a pretty impressive performance by Miramax Films. Particularly when you take into consideration the meager number of nominations that the Walt Disney Pictures side of the studio received this year.”

FACT: Buena Vista earned 10 nominations, tied with Warner Bros. for 3rd. Only Miramax and Paramount Vantage received more, and he credits the Max with PV’s nominations.

While he lists each and every Miramax nomination to make it look so impressive, he waves off Disney with a simple, “The Walt Disney Pictures side of the studio had to settle for a number of tech-related nominations.”

“To just to recap here … If you work for the Miramax Films side of the Mouse House, Tuesday was a very “good news day” indeed. If — on the other hand — you work for the Walt Disney Pictures side of the studio and/or ABC … Well, let’s just say that Blue Monday arrived one day late.”

The article is just mean, mean, mean. I can only read into it that Jim Hill has some kind of grudge with Disney and doesn’t miss an opportunity to take cheap shots.